


Mulder's Phone Call

by Minuete



Series: His and Her Angst [25]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s06e18 Milagro, F/M, Pre-Episode, season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minuete/pseuds/Minuete
Summary: It's been a while since Mulder called Scully off hours.





	Mulder's Phone Call

**Author's Note:**

> I wonder if Scully visited Mulder's place after the events of "One Son". I also wonder when Mulder stopped/started calling Scully off hours around this time frame.

Mulder stared at the cordless phone in his hand, his thumb hovering over the speed-dial “1” button for Scully’s home phone. How long had it been since he last called her when he had an idea or a thought he wanted to share?  When he needed her two cents?  Why was he hesitating to call?  Without further thought, Mulder pushed the speed dial button. Scully didn’t pick up her landline phone immediately when he rang; she used to answer before the second ring ended. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Scully, it’s me.”  He heard her suck in a breath before she greeted him.

“Hey, is something wrong?” a concerned tone in her voice.  Mulder squinted at his VCR clock.  It wasn’t even 8 pm yet.

“No, does something have to be wrong for me to call you?”  He half-expected Scully to let out her usual huff on the other end of the line, but no response.  “I wanted to know if you wanna hang out tonight? Grab some takeout and catch the  _Unsolved Mysteries_ marathon?”

A beat passed. Then two.  The long-drawn silence was seemingly measuring the distance between them over the phone line.  It only took seven steps from the desk to Scully’s workstation in the office, roughly 18,000 steps from his apartment doorstep to hers, yet Mulder couldn’t quantify this distance he’d sensed from her ever since Kersh reassigned the two of them back to the X-Files.  Scully maintained her professional and polite demeanor, volleying theories and ideas of the recently strange cases they had of late.  She would steer their conversations in the office to the cases at hand,  took her lunch separately twice a week “to run errands”.  They got the X-Files back, but it seemed that only half of Scully’s drive remained.  Mulder wondered if Scully’s line cut out.  He was about to repeat his question when Scully hesitantly responded.

“No, Mulder. I don’t think so,” she said in a tone similar to her disagreeing to one of his theories.  Mulder bit his lower lip and nodded as he leaned back on his black leather couch with an episode of _Unsolved Mysteries_  playing in the background on mute.  

“Got some exciting plans for tonight, Scully?”

“Not exactly.  I’m writing a monograph regarding human conductivity and its challenges for forensics.”  Really? She’d rather be drafting a paper over spending time with him?  

“What do you have in store for this weekend?”

“I’m invited to Ellen’s divorce party tomorrow.  Everything was finalized last week.”

Mulder frowned. He understood the Jungian theory for humans seeking closure, but— “Doesn’t she have kids?”

“Yes, one.  Trent’s a teen now.”  Mulder nodded again.

“Well, divorce party aside, I’m hoping she places her son in some counseling.”

“You don’t think a divorce party is a good idea?”

“I’m not saying it’s bad, Scully.  It’s probably therapeutic for some who had an arduous divorce process.  I think that it could be detrimental to the kids who already deal with a freight of emotions that come with their parents’ separation.”

“I’ll let Ellen know,” Scully replied in a soft tone.  Mulder knew she understood where he was coming from.  She continued, “From what she told me, this divorce was years in the making.  She and her ex were both unhappy, often bickering in front of Trent. It came to the point where ‘family trips’ were taken separately with him.”

“Are you unhappy, Scully?”  There was a pause on the other end of the line at this abrupt change in subject.

“What are you trying to get at, Mulder?”  He could sense her getting defensive even though her tone remained neutral, cool.

“I’m just sensing a disconnect from you lately.”

“A disconnect?” This time she sounded incredulous.   _Shit_.  He was treading on a field of land mines now.  Suddenly feeling restless, Mulder reached for his basketball beside the couch and started to dribble it on the floor while remaining seated.

“Um, what I meant to say was that you seem distracted.” A sudden pounding and muffled yelling from his neighbor below had Mulder get up from his couch and bounce the basketball against a space of wall near his TV.

“You first accuse me of being unhappy to being disconnected.  Now I’m  _distracted_?” He slightly winced at her remark still bouncing the basketball against the wall.  He mentally counted how long it would take for Scully to continue.   _One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four—_

“Maybe we do need to reassess my reassignment back to the X-Files,” Scully said in a low voice. Stunned by her remark, Mulder dropped the ball letting it roll towards the coffee table.

“What do mean by ‘reassess’?”  He could imagine Scully shrugging in her apartment.  His mind immediately imagined her requesting a transfer.  “Look, Scully, forget what I said alright? It was just a stupid, random thought that crossed my mind.”  _Retreat! Retreat!_ _Back to safer ground_ _,_  he thought.

“It’s what we do best, Mulder: forgetting.”  Frustrated, Mulder hammer fisted the wall a couple of times with his left hand.  

“What exactly do you mean by that, Scully?” He asked. Before she could respond, there was a knock at his door. “Hold on a second.  There’s someone at my door.” He placed the receiver against his right shoulder as he quickly approached the entryway.  Mulder opened his door revealing a slim, dark-haired man with a maintained goatee dressed in a long, blue button-down shirt and jeans.

“Hey, I’m your new next door neighbor.  Do you mind not pounding against the wall? I’m in the middle of writing a novel.”

“Oh, sorry about that.  Thought the unit was vacant.” He turned his attention back to his phone once he shut the door, standing under the door frame to his living room.

“Who was it?”

“One of the neighbors requesting me to keep quiet,” he answered dismissively as he raked his hair still feeling frustrated, “What exactly do you mean by ‘forgetting’? I’m the one with the photographic memory; I don’t forget anything.”

“You’re right, Mulder. We sweep things under the rug.  Things left unspoken. It’s how both of us function.”  _Things left unspoken?_  

“Are you talking about last summer in the hallway?” He asked hesitantly. 

“No!” An immediate and swift response. “No, Mulder. That conversation was under extreme duress—“

“Everything I said then still holds true now, Scully,” Mulder blurted out quickly.  He couldn’t let her rationalize away  _that_  conversation.  He gripped his phone tightly, leaning against the frame.   _Value,_ _cherish, adore_ _, frighten_ _,_ _…_  these words and emotions remained unspoken.  He closed his eyes tightly as he pinched the bridge of his nose—  trying to muster the courage to speak up, trying to find the will to just come out and say it.  Instead, he mumbled quietly into the receiver, “More so than anything.”

Another momentary silence.  He could see in his mind’s eye Scully’s stoic expression, but then there would be a slight crack, a wavering in her steady blue eyes that indicated that his words got through to her. A sigh. Was it his or hers?

“I’ll see you on Monday, Mulder,” she said in a resigned tone.  They hung up at the same time.  Mulder sank onto the floor to ruminate over what transpired. 


End file.
